Stop Titan brings in backup

CASTLE HAYNE, NC (WWAY)-- What's it like to live in a town with a cement plant? Hundreds of people came out to Stop Titan's first ever Picnic in the Park to find out.

"I don't care if they go somewhere else, they just don't need to be anywhere near parks and water and your children," said Alexandra Allred, who lives near a cement plant in Texas.

Even though the NC Division of Air Quality has granted Titan America an air permit many Castle Hayne residents are still fighting the would-be employer.

The message at Sunday's event, and those who delivered it, were a little different than at just any anti-Titan rally.

"I didn't know anything about the cement industry until I moved to my town that's the cement capital of Texas," said Allred. "About three months after living there my perfectly healthy boy got very sick and he was hospitalized five times in six months."

People from towns across the country that are home to cement plants came and shared their horror stories Sunday.

Many of them believe that terrible things are happening because of the levels of pollution emitted from these plants.

"We have sick people. It's not only cancer, we have accelerated asthma, which they finally agreed to that we have," said Jeff Galemore, who lives near a cement plant in Kansas. "We have MS, we have kidney problems. My sister's had a kidney transplant, there's five in the community."

Stop Titan members say these stories have reinvigorated their resolve and that they plan on continuing to battle the cement plant.

"It's great for us to learn about these personal stories and to hear how dangerous it is for all of us, for our children and for our adults," said Tracy Bruno.

"I took away that in reality it can be worse than we actually think it can be," said Tom Mcgraw.

Sunday's event comes days after the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a legal challenge against the NC Division of Air Quality's permit for Titan America.

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After reading the article on Sunday protest, I have to wonder if the people that attended have a brain. I have nothing to do with TITAN. I am just a citizen that is fed up with listening to the pathetic arguments when there is already an operational plant right next to the proposed new plant site. The existing plant in Castle Hayne is often hazed by a cloud of cement dust from loading bulk-hauling trucks and the people of Castle Hayne are not complaining about it! And of the "HORROR STORIES" that I have read about, not one could say that it was the result of an ultra modern plant that TITAN intends to build that will exceed most EPA Requirements. It will actually be far healthier environmentally than the existing operating cement plant and will provide many, many more jobs for the local residence.
Maybe the news media and the people that attend these rallies should start asking questions like: Who are these people who come from all over to run down a situation that they really know little or nothing about? Who notified these people of the problem since they come from other states? Who paid their way? I have a hard time believing that they came out of the goodness of their heart and at their own expense. Is the existing plant paying people to rally in an effort to keep the competition out? And can these people prove that cement plants caused MS? Aspartame is a sweetener used in many diet soft drinks and even in baby food and it is a known cause symptoms that have been diagnosed initially as MS and other neurological disorders to include Gulf War Syndrome. Who is to say it was not their existing lifestyle that caused their problem and not the cement plants?
Many people in America today are like sheep. If you tell them what they want to hear they will believe anything and follow you anywhere, even if it kills them! And once you get them going, all you have to do is allude to something and their poorly trained brains will fill in the blank and swear to what they have thought to be the Gospel Truth.
Isn't it about time for the people of Castle Hayne to go to TITAN and find out exactly what TITAN intends to build and what is actually going on with the existing Cement Plant? You just may be astonished to find that you are being used to keep back competition and that what TITAN offers is far healthier health wise and economically than what you have now. Start asking what are we not being told and ask them questions about that. You will find many arguments falling apart when the truth is exposed through honest questions.

Why don't you go to Titan and ask your questions. Let them know you are the one person in this area that knows more than anyone else. Let them know that you can explain away all that is bad about Titan and blame it on something else. Let them know you have a magic wand that does this. Titan will not answer questions in a public forum. Titan uses people just like you to spout questions instead of answers. Since you appear to think enough of Titan to worship them, why don't you and the rest of the pro Titan crowd form your own church? You can worship a foreign corporation that wants to add Millions of pounds of pollution to an already polluted area each year. You can worship a foreign corporation that will use Billions of gallons of water each year, thus wiping out the aquifer that thousands of people from your own country depend on. You can worship a foreign corporation that sues citizens of your own country that disagree with them. You can worship a foreign corporation that lobby's Congress to eliminate pollution laws so they can operate all their plants here the way they operate the one in Alexandria, Egypt. You can pray in your new “church of those that love Titan” that everyone in this country will see the light and allow Titan to come here and do whatever it pleases. Titan comes from Greece, a country that is bankrupt. This is where Titan learned how to fix the world's problems. Titan should quit the cement business, It should take up casting magic spells. It would appear that they are able to cast a spell that convinces some people that their massive down side is acceptable for supposedly adding 160 jobs. This is less than 1% of the people unemployed in New Hanover County. With people buying into this kind of logic, we need to fix the education system in this country first. Hopefully it is not too late to fix “STUPID”!

This long diatribe would be comical if this wasn't such a serious issue. You claim that you know better than the over 12,000 people who are concerned about Titan, including over 200 doctors, hundreds of business owners, scientists, university professors, 450 health care professionals, the American Lung Association, the NHC Pediatric Society, the North Carolina Pediatric Society, the NHC County Board of Health, the NHC Board of Education - and that doesn't include the mountains of medical and scientific data that says the pollutants and toxins that Titan will emit will be harmful to our health and especially the health of our children.....you think you know more than they do and yet you don't even know that there IS NO CEMENT PLANT IN OPERATION RIGHT NOW AT THAT SITE!! There is nothing but a tiny rock quarry there now...No mercury, no arsenic, no PM 2.5, no SO2, no NOX, no Hydrochloric Acid. In other words no 12 MILLION POUNDS of pollution and toxins that Titan will spew into our air that will rain down on our children. No 2500 acre mine draining millions of gallons of water EVERY DAY out of our aquifer, no 300+ additional dump trucks on our roads every day, no 500 ft. smokestack and no foreign corporation lining their pockets at our expense.
And by the way - the citizens HAVE been asking Titan Cement to answer questions in a public forum for four years now and they refuse to do it. They also will not say that they will not burn hazardous waste, tires, plastics and other noxious waste (as if burning coal isn't bad enough)They sue are citizens for speaking factual statements at a county meeting, while their CEO is in Washington trying to get the Clean Air Act revoked. All that and we're suppose to trust them????
Do you live under a rock????

Thank you for covering a very important environmental story. More details would be great. I attended, and the residents of Castle Hayne, New Hanover Co. Brunswick, and Pender should be on high alert for the problems that the cement plant can and will cause for our economy, our environment and most importantly our health. My prediction is property values around the plant will plummet and the health costs will be dear. What I gleaned from the folks who already are living in towns run by cement plants are as follows: the towns have become bankrupt and no one can sell their home or business. If they speak up against the cement plants, they are either ridiculed or threatened. The cement plant personnel establish themselves in the community boards so they may have and in and infuence the communities. The rare forms of cancer are affecting many residents but especially vulnerable are the children. Asthma and respiratory ailments are way over the norm. The monitoring/testing of the particulate matter is either non-existant or tampered with and the govt does not have the funds or personnel to regulate these companies. Most of the cement plants turn to hazardous waste to use in fueling the kilns to make the cement due to the high cost of fuel to bring it to extremely high temperatures. The cement co is then paid to take on hazardous waste and that is an incentive for them. Things like tires are burned and then benzines released into the air and inhailed. This will be our future if this industry is not stopped before it is too late!

P Jackson, I would say that is most stupid think I have read in years. I guest the easiest thing to show you is that the City of Wilmington isn't bankrupt ( remember Ideal was out there for a good number of years). Did people have problems selling their houses when Ideal was in business? There should be plenty of data to show it did if that was a fact.

You stated "The rare forms of cancer are affecting many residents but especially vulnerable are the children." Can you show me proof of this and again the data should be there to point this out...

Now you are trying to say they use hazardous waste, can you prove this and if they do then they most be getting it from another plant nearby that is producing it. Shouldn't you be trying to shutdown those plants?

How many more lies are you going to stread about this plant? I really think if you want to have support of your cause, show the data where Ideal did all the about before there were standards like they are now. If I were you I would be more concerned as to what GE is doing and wanting to do on the nuclear side. I don't see you have an issue it them...

I have said this over and over. If there is health problems caused cement plants there should be local data here showing this. The problem I see is that they cannot prove Ideal Cement caused health problem. Now they want to bring people in that supposed to be living near a plant and have issues. Can they even prove that the health problem is cause by the plant there?

I will say this again, show me where Ideal Cement caused health problem (data should be out there) and I will stand with you on the issue.

It does not take a rocket scientist to connect the dots. Family moves to Midlothian Texas with a perfectly healthy son and he is taken to the ER 6 times in six months due to severe breathing problems? Or over half the children in Midlothian Texas have asthma and have to carry inhailers at all times. There are 3 cement plants there. Do you honestly think it is healthy to have dioxin,sulfuric acid,mercury,lead,chromium, etc. released into the air? By the way check your tense; should be there are health problems...cause should be caused in that the health problem is cause... and other errors.

Isn't there a cement plant currently operating in the same area without the newer environmental standards? I think it has been there since the 50's. That would be a good place to get some data. I live in the area and have not heard of anyone having problems from it.

The water directly in front of where the Ideal Cement plant was (where Titan wants to build) is on the EPA's list of most polluted water sites in the US. Coincidence? The Cape Feat has slightly acidic water and it's the perfect mix to turn metal mercury into a more polluted toxic kind.

The water directly in front of where the Ideal Cement plant was (where Titan wants to build) is on the EPA's list of most polluted water sites in the US. Coincidence? The Cape Feat has slightly acidic water and it's the perfect mix to turn metal mercury into a more polluted toxic kind.

You ask some good questions. I don't think they have been operational for some years , but they keep it open doing the minimum activity (not producing cement, perhaps using the quarry) required to keep permits.
The furnace stack is very low and high levels of mercury have been found in the fish at and near the area. Most likely the toxins are drawn down by the cool water. I personally would not eat any fish from the river.
I believe what Titan plans to produce will be on a much larger scale: 3X what the old plant used to produce! My biggest worry is when they want to burn hazardous waste and then we will have a toxic coctail added to our air.

Titan claims they want and will be in compliance with EPA codes. I'm sure they will especially for the first year they are open. Then when things cool off and people aren't keeping a close eye on them, I'm sure they will do whatever it takes to make a bigger dollar. Much like when a new restaurant opens, everything is done the right way. Then after a while, when the health inspectors don't show for a while, things tend to lapse.

Here's a question; if Titan is laying off at other plants presumably because of slow-downs, why do they need to open this plant so bad?

Why wouldn't Titan want to open this plant. They can make as much money burning medical waste , tires and any other environmentally damaging material. Other cities and states andcountries pay a small ransom to get rid of waste. The port of NC offers a nice dropping off point for all the countries garbage for us to breathe. Oh no, they won't do that..wink wink..we are "good neighbors" Don't worry about the use of our drinking water..maybe Titan can sell recycled water too.

Transporting high or low level radioactive material for GE's new nuclear enrichment facility looks like Titan's only possible customer. That's the only other major permit that is in process in this area right now. It's got to be GE, there's just no other logical construction use, demand, or explanation. It's hard to fight them if GE is backing because so many here work for GE. But we'd sure feel better if GE were putting in Wind power out in the ocean, than this. "A nuclear .. containment structure consists of a .. 1 meter thick wall of very thick and heavy reinforced concrete"

There are no cement plants that manufacture there own cement in probably all of NC. With rail, trucking, ocean and river shipping, this place becomes IDEAL for a new plant that has been on hold by TITAN for over a decade while they modernized other plants and closed down others that were not as clean or efficient. As for the EPA checking on them, burn the EPA if they are not doing their job. By the way, do you know if the EPA Inspectors have been checking on the existing plant that operates in a cloud of dust? How do I know that there is a cloud of dust: I have seen it?